Underlying health condition

* Nothing to do with Corona Virus *
Can anyone point me to a medical definition for what is considered an underlying medical condition please? 
Everything I get brings up the ones for corona (asthma etc), but I'm just wondering what the standard definition is - outside of corona.
Is 'underlying' something you've had for 6 months... A year...? Is it diagnosed or undiagnosed? 
Purley to hopefully help me be right in a Saturday morning discussion with hubby...., 🤣
Ie is an ongoing issue for 4 years where you've been admiitted to hospital and over 4 years of various tests later, still awaiting formal diagnosis classed as underlying health issues or does it need to be diagnosed and receiving medication.
It must be defined somewhere but corona is at front of all my Google results..... 
Forty and fabulous, well that's what my cards say....

Replies

  • amandacatamandacat Forumite
    572 Posts
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    Forumite
    An underlying health condition can be anything, there is no specific time requirement for something to be classed as an underlying condition. It can be diagnosed or undiagnosed. 
    For example, someone visits a GP displaying symptoms of excessive thirst. The GP decides to check for an underlying health condition and finds out the person has diabetes and this is causing these symptoms. 
    Another example, a person is experiencing bad headaches. The person has high blood pressure that has already been diagnosed so the GP attributes this to their underlying health condition of high blood pressure. 
    In the case of Coronavirus, someone gets extremely ill and need oxygen, they have Asthma so this is an underlying health condition that is making their illness called by Coronavirus worse. 

    The term underlying conditions, refers to any medical condition a person suffers with that, when faced with another medical condition, could cause symptoms to be worse. 
  • mwarbymwarby Forumite
    2K Posts
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Forumite
    Obvious ones are breathing difficulty such as asthma or COPD. Less obvious ones might include something which surpresses the immune system, which might be kemo or similar to thing such as late stage HIV\AIDS
This discussion has been closed.
Latest MSE News and Guides

Did you know there's an MSE app?

It's free & available on iOS & Android

MSE App

Regifting: good idea or not?

Add your two cents to the discussion

MSE Forum

Energy Price Guarantee calculator

How much you'll likely pay from April

MSE Tools